Curriculum Sample: Montessori in Mind
Despite the cold weather we know spring is around the bend! This work cycle children will be saying a final farewell to Winter and looking ahead to the coming season.
In Sensorial we will be bringing a burst of color into our Senses Study with a Rainbow Building Work, which will encourage children to use sensory discrimination of size, grading and color to create a rainbow. We will also explore color mixing with the translucent Color Paddles. Finally, we will be continuing our exploration of texture with a Hard/Squishy Conversation Basket. (After all, Spring is bound to be a squishy season!)
Practical Life will offer an exciting chance for children to extend their work on parts of fruit – and the sense of taste! – with some real food preparation. Children will be helping to slice a banana today at snack time, and sharing the pieces equally. We will also be adding the Weaving Table to the classroom so children can practice weaving giant soft pipe cleaners. We will continue our scissor skills with Snowflake Cutting Strips.
The Language shelf will offer a Letter and Initial Sound Matching Work with consonants R, G and W. We will also debut the Five Senses Sorting Work, with cards representing each of the five senses and a collection of pictures for sorting. We will be adding crayons and paper to our Insets. Finally, we will be reading about spring, rain and rainbows in a new book, Science.
In Math we will be exploring three and four-sided shapes with our Square and Triangle Puzzle. Children will also practice building their own shapes with shape builders and will be counting and numbering the colors of the rainbow.
For Science children will be conducting an experiment! We will be making our own snow with a special Snow Making Powder….and observing what happens when we leave it out in the warm air.
Curriculum Sample: Montessori Playdate
We have an exciting addition for Language! The Tracing Insets provide a chance for children to explore positive and negative space and trace their fingers along the edges for the basics lines and shapes of letter formation.
We will also have Hot/Cold Weather Clothing Cards for sorting items that we wear in winter and summer. The group will be reading Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and practicing the motions of making footsteps, snow angels and throwing snowballs!
For Practical Life we will have a Laundry Sorting and Folding Work with warm winter pants and sweaters. We will also bring in some texture with Rough and Smooth Sorting with Tongs.
In Math this Cycle we will be extending our exploration of fractions new Fraction Circles, 1/2, 1/3 and 1/6. A set of fruit with corresponding numbers of sections will accompany!
Curriculum Sample: Montessori From the Start
For Sensorial we will be bringing in our sense of smell with Scent Jars in warm winter scents of pumpkin spice, vanilla and clove. We will also extend our investigation of shape with the Geometric Solids with a basket of everyday objects that correspond in shape. We will also have Shape Sorting for younger students to practice fine motor control. Students will also be matching the large, medium and small pieces of the Pink Tower and Brown Stair to black two dimensional silhouettes.
In Language We will also be adding new Letter Trays for initial sound work, D and Z. We will be noticing the different ways our mouths make these sounds, i.e. use of the tongue for “d” and use of the teeth for “z.” We will also continue work with our Does It Make a Sound? Conversation Basket with various items that are either silent or noisy. We will also have new Large, Medium and Small Object Cards. These cards also encourage matching by two categories – size and also food, drink and toys.
An array of new books has also been added to the baskets to explore concepts of our 5 Senses, Shape and Winter.
Practical Life will have a new set of household cleaning items, including a child-sized mop, broom, dustpan and duster. We will spend time practicing using these items in their proper ways and noticing how they feel and sound.
For Math we will be adding new Shape Pattern Cards and Sandpaper Numbers 1 – 10. We will also introduce a Fraction Work with felt circles divided into halves, fourths and eights. Over the course of the work cycle we will extend this exploration to thirds and sixths, and will be practicing matching these circles to corresponding fruits and vegetables that are divided into these fractions.
At Sensory Motor we are excited to “weave” in sensory concepts of size and hot and cold to our yarn exploration with a big Crochet Pizza Making Work, complete with yarn pepperoni and cheese, and a Crochet Snowman Making Work with small, medium and large circles.
We are excited for cozy and creative learning in the weeks ahead!
